Last night, I invited people to the launch party of "The Mayor's Bear and Other Stories of Hope" - a great time was had by all! This is the speech I gave:
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Good evening everyone. Thank you all for coming
And a special thank you to Alison Cameron for making this event possible this evening - thank you for your welcome & support, Alison.
Alison’s bookshop is a dynamic haven, a rich resource and an increasingly rare independent bookshop on our high street. This in itself is something to celebrate.
I am sure you will want to buy at least one if not several copies of the new edition of The Mayor’s Bear which now comes with Other Stories of Hope as well. And if we run out of copies do please order more copies through this bookshop. They make ideal presents and you will be helping a local business!
The story has been exquisitely illustrated by Elizabeth Gibbs and my daughter, Jess Harvey - for the original and new short stories respectively. I am hugely grateful to them both. Jess’ help with this new edition has been more supportive than she probably knows. Thank you Jess.
This book began when I was Mayor and I was asked to open the library at the new school in Lace Hill on the south of our town.. I wanted to read the children a story about a Town Mayor - but I could not find a book that seemed to fit. So I read them some Edward Lear instead but I left with the glimmer of an idea - and the first edition was the result.
Just yesterday, my good friend Jeremy asked me if I enjoyed being Mayor a few years ago. And I replied that it was a glorious two years. As a Mayor, or indeed as any of the people in the so called ‘chain gang’ of local dignitaries know - you get to sprinkle magical pixie boosting dust on all the people you meet. I had so many wonderful opportunities to admire, learn from and really appreciate what people are doing for our local community.
In part, my book is a celebration of what Mayors do, up and down the country, everyday.
Since the first edition, I have been to several schools, including Lace Hill to read the story to children aged from 5 to 11. This has been a joy as the children respond to the book, but also hear about their ideas for making where they live even better. I also get to encourage their creative writing as well.
And my experience in schools and beyond has driven me to produce a new edition of the book. The new short stories put much more emphasis on what progressive projects Mayors, and local councillors and indeed the legion of community volunteers can do to make their communities even better places in which to live, work and play. This new book is a celebration of all those efforts too.
It is also more than that. My book is also a call to arms. We live in a crazy and scary world right now. And the vast majority of us can do little about the national and international tectonic forces affecting our lives.
Except we can.
As Mayor Roxie says in the first story “I can’t make world peace happen, but I can make one piece of it better”.
If my new book stimulates just one person, especially a young person, to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the messy, frustrating but ultimately enchanting job of local community politics, I will be happy. And if more get involved, I will be even happier and the world will be a better place.
So this new book is about the power of bringing people together to create even more sustainable communities in which everyone, every person is an author of their own life and not a walk-on character in someone else’s narrative. A community in which everyone gets to dream, have ambitions and the wherewithal to achieve those.
It is also about magic, teddy bears, neighbours and cake
And it is about hope.
So now, I am going to read you one whole short story…
[Solomiya - story of a young Ukrainian refugee & carer - & her chess achievements]
I will finish with another extract - a speech given towards the end of the first story by Mayor Roxie’s brother at his birthday party - as it seems particularly appropriate to this evening:
>> Finally, as the evening relaxed down, Nishan got up to make a speech. “Well, I feel so incredibly fortunate. I have now spent 50 years on this beautiful planet with the most adorable family and friends. I am sad of course that my parents are not here anymore. I have the most wonderful wife, who is the love of my life, who keeps me on the rails while making every moment we are together golden and glittery. And my two sisters who irritate me and delight me in equal measure. Of course I jest, they are much more irritating! And all of you, my dearest friends, who have come from far and wide to be here. I wish this party could go on forever. I love all you folks so much! Sometimes when people get to my age they have a midlife crisis and wonder about the meaning of life. But no crisis for me. The meaning of life is really not hard is it? It’s about love. It’s always been about love! So let’s toast: to living, to loving our family, our friends and everyone! Love is all you need!” <<
Thank you again for coming along today. I am happy to take any questions and sign books!
Thank you Sally Hughes for the pic
